Current opinion in critical care
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Oct 2024
ReviewAcute diarrhea in the hospitalized immunocompromised patient: what is new on diagnostic and treatment?
This article aims to provide an intuitive framework for diagnosing and managing healthcare-associated diarrhea (HCAD) in the immunocompromised (IC) host. ⋯ Diarrhea is a common complication in hospitalized IC patients and is associated with significant morbidity and rare mortality. The advent of new diagnostics, such as GI multiplex PCR panels, holds promise in facilitating the detection of recognized pathogens and may allow for improved outcomes using pathogen-targeted therapy.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Oct 2024
ReviewImplications of frailty before and after intensive care unit admission.
In the decade since the first publications related to frailty in those with critical illness, the study of frailty has rapidly increased. The purpose of this review is to update the reader on recent advances across several important areas of frailty research: how best to identify frailty in those with critical illness, studies describing the relationship between frailty and delirium, and how frailty affects outcomes for those with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which, despite rates and severity of acute infection declining, still tremendously impacts patients long after the acute infection, resulting in symptoms of long COVID-19. ⋯ Frailty in those with critical illness is an emerging field of study. Future work to define the optimal means by which to identify this syndrome and how best to manage critically ill patients with frailty are needed.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Oct 2024
ReviewSepsis phenotypes, subphenotypes, and endotypes: are they ready for bedside care?
Sepsis remains a leading global cause of morbidity and mortality, and despite decades of research, no effective therapies have emerged. The lack of progress in sepsis outcomes is related in part to the significant heterogeneity of sepsis populations. This review seeks to highlight recent literature regarding sepsis phenotypes and the potential for further research and therapeutic intervention. ⋯ Sepsis therapies including care bundles, fluid resuscitation, and source control procedures may be better guided by validated phenotypes than universal application. Novel biomarkers may improve upon the sensitivity and specificity of existing markers and identify complications and sequelae of sepsis. Multiomics have demonstrated significant differences in sepsis populations, most notably expanding our understanding of immunosuppressed sepsis phenotypes. Despite progress, these findings may be limited by modest reproducibility and logistical barriers to clinical implementation. Further studies may translate recent findings into bedside care.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Oct 2024
ReviewA practical approach to preparing your ICU for epidemics and pandemics.
Major outbreaks of infectious diseases, including epidemics and pandemics, are increasing in scope and frequency, threatening public health and straining the capacity of health systems worldwide. High-consequence infectious diseases (HCIDs), including highly pathogenic respiratory viruses and viral hemorrhagic fevers, are both contagious and virulent, and these pathogens thus are topics of special concern for pandemic planning. ⋯ Pandemics and HCIDs are a significant threat to global health, and ICUs play a major role in the care of affected patients. Critical care professionals must work to ensure that our hospitals are prepared to identify and care for these patients in advance of the next emergency.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Oct 2024
ReviewWhat are the clinical and research lessons learned from immunomodulators and other therapies during the COVID-19 pandemic?
The development and use of immunomodulators and other therapies during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic provided several lessons with respect to these therapies, and to how medical researchers and clinicians should approach the next pandemic. ⋯ The next new and emerging pandemic will undoubtedly share many of the same challenges posed by COVID-19. It is important that researchers and clinicians learn from this experience, adhere to tried and true clinical care, all the while conducting high quality research aimed at developing definitive treatments.